Dr. Ahmed G. Abo-Khalil

Electrical Engineering Department

Intergalactic spac

Intergalactic space is the physical space between galaxies. The huge spaces between galaxy clusters are called the voids. Surrounding and stretching between galaxies, there is a rarefied plasma[106] that is organized in a galactic filamentary structure.[107] This material is called the intergalactic medium (IGM). The density of
the IGM is 5–200 times the average density of the Universe.[108] It consists mostly of ionized hydrogen; i.e. a plasma consisting of equal numbers of electrons and protons. As gas falls into the intergalactic medium from the voids, it heats up to temperatures of 105 K to 107 K,[109] which is high enough so that collisions between atoms have enough
energy to cause the bound electrons to escape from the hydrogen nuclei;
this is why the IGM is ionized. At these temperatures, it is called the warm–hot intergalactic medium (WHIM). (Although the gas is very hot by terrestrial standards, 105 K is often called "warm" in astrophysics.) Computer simulations and
observations indicate that up to half of the atomic matter in the
Universe might exist in this warm-hot, rarefied state.[108][110][111] When gas falls from the filamentary structures of the WHIM into the
galaxy clusters at the intersections of the cosmic filaments, it can
heat up even more, reaching temperatures of 108 K and above in the so-called intracluster medium.[112]